SNAPSHOT - August '24

ETERNUS SCHOOL PROGRAMME

The following are the streams the 10th Standards have got admission into for Higher Secondary:

  Navanitham – Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, Languages

  Jones – Commerce, Accountancy, Economics, Computer Applications, Languages

  Akash – Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, Languages

  Jayakumar – Commerce, Accountancy, Economics, Computer Applications, Languages

  Jenifer – Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, Languages.

Farewell to Dr. Joan Elango, Principal of the Anita Methodist School

In April, Mr. Jose Philip, one of our Board Members, and the Eternus staff met with Dr. Joan Elango, the outgoing Principal of Anita Methodist School. in her 8 years at this school, she had been a great support to help us help some of their students.

She expressed her gratitude to Eternus for the association and appreciated the consistent work we carry out with the children.

CHILD AND PERSONAL SAFETY SESSION

We had a session on personal safety in the month of April where we discussed the various forms of safety, including home safety, cyber safety, food safety, and, most importantly, personal safety. We gave the kids basic safety education so they could be aware of their surroundings and educate their friends.

MINI VBS

We conducted a mini-VBS in May. This year’s theme was Jesus- Our True Friend. The resource team for the VBS were Rev D. Francis, Mrs. Elizabeth Francis and Mr. John from GNE ministry, Chennai. There were total of 14 students who attended the VBS from both Anita Methodist and St. Thomas School.  We had action songs, Bible stories, magic shows and debate on “Which is the hindrance for the development of a child, is it the family, friends or student themselves?”, for which the students had plenty of points to talk about.

DRUG AWARENESS SESSION

The EF team conducted Drug Awareness session. We taught them the meaning of addiction, the different kinds of drugs, the brain-power and the ways to prevent it. There were different newspaper clipping, interview videos, real life short documentary and infographics used to present the topic. We highlighted the Bible verse, ‘we are fearfully and wonderfully made’ to emphasize on the Love, God has for us and that we need to care for the body he has given us. It was a very interactive and eye-opening session for the kids and many of the children were able to relate to it because they see the impact of the drugs on some of their peers.

TEENS CAMP

The Teens camp was held between 3rd and 5th of May at Mahabalipuram. We had 19 students take part. Mr. Nathaniel and Mrs. Sally, Youth Counselors in Shiloh Faith Point Harvesters Church, were our resource people. The camp had quiet time, devotion, movie time, group discussions and experiential learning. They introduced the 'River of life’- a self-evaluation tool,  which allows the participants to reflect on personal experiences and influences that have molded and guided them in their present situation in life. We had one–on–one sessions with the kids and also had a rollicking time on the beach.

Maria Jasmine from Stella Maris College and Akash, Class 11, were chosen as the best camper female and male respectively based on their involvement in the camp.

RESURRECTION DAY SESSION

In April, Mr. Nathaniel shared, in a Zoom session with the children, about the significance of the resurrection of Christ. He explained that the ramifications of sin include abandonment, shame, and rejection, but through His resurrection, Jesus restored our brokenness and provided healing through the cross. The session was truly a blessingā.

Teens Camp – Follow Up

On the 7th of July, we had the follow up for the teens camp. The objective of the meeting was to reflect on what was shared during the 3-day camp and their after-camp experience. We had introspective questions from the theme and highlighted the need to seek God and build a good relationship with him. Few students shared their experience and some of them were even moved into tears when reflecting on the effect of the Camp.

COLLEGE PROGRAMME

Eternus classes were resumed for the college students as well. The students are back to college and have been engaged with activities as follows

1.      Reading Practices –We have identified a need for improved reading practices, so the students have been doing comprehensive exercises to learn a lot of new vocabulary. We do Contextual Reading, which helps the beginners to  find key words that would help them guess the meaning which eventually help them read better.

2.      Testimony Video – We encourage them to watch stories of individuals in the marketplace. We listened to Ms. Pranitha Timothy from Justice and Hope, who spoke on how God began a good work in her and how He is enabling her to serve God through life’s challenges. The students find these stories encouraging and during the classes we spend time on living a purposeful life.

3.      Cloud Access – We introduced them to Notion, a single cloud space to think, write and organize work space, projects.

4.      Interview Preparation – We help the final year students in Resume building, Group discussions and common questions that would help them in preparing for interviews.

BOARD MEMBER’S MEET UP WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS AND GRADUATES

In May, our Board Member Mr. Jose Philip, had a meeting with the college students and the graduates in Chennai. This was part of his exploration into the effectiveness of the Eternus programme as part of his PhD studies in the US.

TEAM DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

Leadtalks '24

Rachel and Adalene attended the annual Lead Talks 2024 event in June. It is a forum for sharing of the experiences of young Indian Christian leaders who transform their workplaces by living lives that reflect Purpose, Integrity, and Excellence.

Both of them had a wonderful experience during the session and saw and learnt from a lot of new perspectives.

ALIVE training

Rachel and Adalene also attended a 10 weeks online training session on ‘ALIVE- Healing and Empowering experience’ conducted by Transform 4 life, Australia. The level 1 ALIVE training is designed to guide to be better individuals and to learn to be friends caring for friends. They learned about who is a victim, what is trauma, abuse and explored many concepts like Ideal Victim, Victim Visibility, Victim-Victimizer cycle, nature of trauma and suffering etc. The entire learning experience has helped them understand the victim and help them make the transition to becoming a survivor.